What They Can't Know
by Dolly-999
Summary: Allie and Rhys never thought they could fall for each other so quickly, or so hard. But how long will it take for things to fall apart? Will this new couple last? Also will Nick be able to win Jen over and show her that they can make it work, or is it to little to late.
1. Prologue

This is a fic that I have written about Allie and Rhys, hope you enjoy.

_**What they can't know**_

_**An Allie and Rhys Fan Fic**_

_**Prologue**_

She could feel his breath on hers, their bodies in such close proximity that air couldn't separate them his arms fell loosely around her waist, were they stood in the viewing room. Anyone could walk in at any second, but yet neither of them could move away, all attention had moved away from the interview which they were supposed to be watching. "Allie" his voice whispered, so soft and gentle that it could only just be heard over the sounds of the computer recording of the interview Duncan and Nick were running.

She knew this was wrong, they were work mates, adding sex to the mix would only make things complicated. But yet despite knowing this, it felt so right with him, everything felt right with him. "Rhys" she stopped him before he could say what he was about to, "We can't" the words tumbled out of her mouth. "Yes we can" he argued, "you and I both know that ignoring this any longer is only going to make things worse". Before Allie could respond to this, Rhys cupped her cheek; sending tingles down her spine and making her feel weak at the knee. Looking into her eyes he paused for a moment before moving in closer to her stopping as his lips almost touched hers. "You and me" he whispered, "we're good together".

That was all the convincing she needed, taking the lead she closed the small gap between them, looping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

And in that moment, the rest of the world didn't exist...


	2. Ch 1, Sexual Tension

_**Chapter 1  
Sexual tension**_

They'd always been good friends, but it had taken them both a while to realise just how much they needed each other. And now, lying in Allie's bed with her sleeping next to him, he felt like everything was the way it should be. She'd taken a bit of convincing; by the time they had gotten together they had already been avoiding the topic for weeks, mainly because of her stubbornness, but also because of his fear of stuffing things up with her before they had even begun. If only he'd taken that step of courage earlier, then maybe, just maybe, they could have been together a long time ago.

As he watched her, he allowed himself to smile slightly as he noticed how peaceful and pure she looked, wrapped in nothing but the white sheets on her bed, and his arm which rested on her hip from behind her. Feeling her begin to stir, he leaned down and placed a small line of kisses down the side of her neck, receiving a grateful sigh from her. "Mmm, good morning" she smiled, rolling onto her back so that he was looking over her, his hand now rested on her stomach, while the other arm propped him up on his side.

"Good morning" he smiled back, placing his hands either side of her and leaning down, covering her lips with his.

"I could get used to waking up to this" she beamed as they parted, running her hands along his bare chest. They'd been together for a week now, and this was the first night that he'd stayed till morning. There was always some reason why he couldn't stay, mostly because of his aunty; she would be suss about the whole situation if it happened every night. "So what are you going to tell your Aunt when she asks you where you got to last night?"

"I'll just tell her that I crashed at a mate's place after a late night" he answered, he hated hiding their relationship, but if his aunty found out, she wouldn't be happy, not to mention the fact that she'd probably go and inform all of their senior officers about the situation. "I wish we could do this every night".

"Mmm" she agreed, wrapping her arms around him and sliding them across his back as he began planting another trail of kisses down her neck.

Allie was in heaven, she had been single for so long that she had forgotten just how amazing it felt to waist the morning in bed with someone, and wake up in their arms. The past week had been tough she had to admit, ever since they first got together, they'd had to keep their newly developing relationship a secret from everyone, but it was moment's like these that made it all worth it. Working together and having to keep their hands off each other had been difficult, especially when during their current case they had been paired together. Although they had given into this temptation on the odd occasion, a little touch when nobody was looking and the occasional kiss behind closed doors when the room was empty, thankfully they hadn't been caught out yet; and hopefully it would stay that way.

After they had first gotten together in that viewing room, they had spent the rest of the morning, trying to focus on work and not show the growing sexual tension between them, to be honest she was surprised that the others hadn't noticed, because she had felt so electrified the whole time, the urge to have him then and there was stronger than ever. By the time their lunch break came around Rhys had had enough, he'd grabbed the keys, as well as Allie, and dragged her out of the building before the others could notice, they hadn't even gotten far before they had pulled the car over out of sight and Rhys had pulled her over onto the back seat.

_Flashback:_

_Rhys was driving along, looking for somewhere they could stop and eat, hopefully somewhere where the others wouldn't be likely to go, "Just pick anywhere, it really doesn't matter" Allie spoke up, her hand placed on his leg. _

"_I'm trying, but it's rather difficult to concentrate" he told her breathlessly, referring to where her hands were placed. _

"_Sorry" she apologized, with a smirk on her face, she loved the reaction she was getting, and the control she had over him. Leaning in close to him she ran her hand further up his leg, "is that better" she whispered sweetly in his ear._

_This only proceeded to push Rhys over the edge, moving quickly, he turned into the nearest back road that he could, finding an abandoned ally way to park the car in. Turning the engine off immediately, he pulled up the hand break and turned his full attention straight to her, cupping the back of her neck with one hand and pulling her in towards him. Their lips met straight away and Allie pulled herself up and over the gear box, sitting down on his lap with one leg on either side of him. His hands began exploring her slender form, removing her jacket, and unbuttoning her shirt so that it fell open. _

_Leaning back for a second so that she could begin to remove his clothes, her bum hit the car horn, suddenly causing her to lean back into him, the two of them freezing for a second before they began to laugh. Rhys kissed her cheek, still giggling under his breath, before he lifted her up and pushed her through the gap between the two front seats and towards the back of the car, following close behind. _

_Allie removed her unbuttoned shirt aswell as her work pants, and was already sitting in the middle waiting for him by the time he scrambled though, placing his hands on her waist he pushed her backwards so that she was lying with her back down on the seat. He hovered above her for a moment, taking the time to admire her body which was clad only in her underwear. Feeling his eye upon her form she reached up and unbuttoned his shirt, running her fingers along his chest before moving down further to undo his belt. _

_This was going to be a long lunch break._

After they got back to the office an hour later, they managed to contain themselves long enough to get through the rest of the day, the moment when they could leave work seeming so far away.


	3. Ch 2, Going in Circles

_**Chapter 2  
Going in Circles**_

When Rhys Walked into work the next day, he found Allie already there and working at her desk. "You're in early for a Monday", he commented, looking up at the clock which read seven o'clock. There weren't many people in the office at this time of the morning, only one other officer was working in their area around the corner.

"Yeah well there's work to do" she sighed, looking up away from the open file her attention had been focused on. Truth was she had come in this early so that she could try and get her head around this case before Rhys came in and distracted her, which had been unsuccessful. "This case is going in circles".

"Mmm" he nodded in agreement. Fifteen witnesses and not one of them could identify what exactly happened, or give them any solid descriptions of what the killer looked like. "We'll get something eventually, we always do".

"Yeah, but in the mean time were chasing our tails". She didn't get it, Patrick O'Neil was your average mid twenties guy; he lived with his girlfriend, studied at university, and seemed to have no issues with his family or his mates. Yet somehow he had been targeted and shot in a public area.

"Coffee?" Rhys offered grabbing his mug off his desk.

"Yes, please".

Then looking around the room quickly and noticing that the room was empty and the officer who had been working not far from them had just left, he leaned down and captured her lips in his. "I missed you last night".

"I missed you too" she whispered, she was about to say something else but they were interrupted by the sound of the elevator doors opening. Rhys quickly stood up straight, grabbing Allies mug and heading to the kitchen, saying a quick hello to Jen and Nick as they came out of the lift.

'That was close' he thought to himself.

"So where are we at" Terry Javis asked as he entered the bull pit where the team was working and writing information up on the board.

"We've just received surveillance footage from a nearby store showing the shooting" Nick spoke up. "No shot of the shooter, just the bullet hitting O'Neil, and everyone running for cover".

"Ok, so what about the victim's past, and leads on that?"

"Nothing" Allie sighed, "we've talked to family members, his girlfriend and mates, even some of the other students and teachers at the university, but from all reports, Patrick was a decent guy with no big issues with anyone".

"What about this girlfriend of his?... Nadia Drew"

"No issues there, according to everyone we spoke too they were both happily in love hoping to start their life together" Matt answered, placing the white board maker down on the table. "She's got an alibi to, she was across town shopping with some friends, credit card purchases and shop security footage can confirm it. She was there before it all happened, and didn't leave until about an hour after".

"Yeah poor girl got home to find uniforms arriving to do the death knock" Nick added.

"That doesn't mean she didn't hire somebody to do it" Duncan pointed out as he entered the room with a cup of coffee. "Maybe she was there for that long because she wanted and alibi".

"True" Matt agreed, "Duncan, you can look into Nadia's past, see if there's anything there. The rest of you keep talking to people at the university, there might be someone who knew something who we haven't talked to yet".

Taking their orders, the five detectives packed up their stuff and made their way back to their desks, leaving Superintendent Javis and Sergeant Ryan alone. "I want a result on this one" Javis told him, "the media's already in a frenzy about the safety of our streets, the longer this investigation goes the more they'll be hassling us".

"So how well did you know Patrick?" Allie asked, making a quick note of how jittery the young girl called Jasmine was. They were out in the open on the university campus, Rhys only a few metres away interviewing another student.

"Well enough to know he was a bit of a tool" the girl shot out, taking Allie by surprise.

"Would you care to elaborate for me?"

Pausing for a minute, Jasmine took a deep breath in before responding, "he's the ex boyfriend of one of my friends, well..."

"Well?" Allie encouraged her when she stopped.

"Look" Jasmine started, "they broke up about two years ago now, but... but they're not exactly separated".

Allie looked up from her job diary, giving the girl a curious look, "are you saying that Patrick was cheating on his girlfriend with your friend?"

"Well... Yeah..."

"What's your friends name Jasmine?"

"Jackie... Jackie Taylor"

"Ok, I'll need to follow this up with her, is there anything else you can think of that might be relevant?"

"Um, not that I can think of... wait your talking to her? She wouldn't have killed him; it's not her style, besides Patrick kept telling her that he was going to leave his girlfriend so that they could be together".

"He did?"

"Yeah" the girl hedged a bit, starting to wonder if she had said too much already. "He said he loved her".

"And did you know Nadia Drew at all?"

"No".

"Ok, well thank you for your help, let me know if you think of anything else" Allie thanked Jasmine, handing her a card with her details on it and closing her job diary.

"Yeah ok" the girl smiled slightly, grabbing her bag and walking off quickly.

Allie Paused for a minute before turning to Rhys who had also just finished with the girl he had been talking too. "I think I've got something".

"Yeah me too" Rhys smiled. "What did you find?"

"Apparently Patrick was seeing an ex girlfriend behind Nadia's back; Jackie Taylor. She might be worth a look; apparently Patrick told her that he'd leave Nadia for her".

"Mmm, maybe she got angry when he didn't do it?"

"Yeah or Nadia found out and decided to get someone to do her dirty work" Allie added.

"Yeah that's quite possible, the girl I was just talking to told me that she knew Nadia back when they were in High School, apparently Nadia had a bit of a violent streak back then, spent most of her time in detention and got expelled for punching the principal when they got into an argument".

"So she's not the angle everyone keeps telling us she is?" she smirked, "looks like we've got two people to bring in then".


	4. Ch 3, Too Late

_**Chapter 3**_

_**Too Late**_

Walking back to the car part at the university, Allie and Rhys found Nick and Jen already there. "Dunny just sent through the addresses for Nadia Drew and Jackie Taylor, I thought we could take one each?" Nick informed them, handing Allie a piece of paper with Jackie Taylor's address on it.

"Yeah sounds good, get them both in straight away" Rhys chimed in. "Where is this place?"

"Richmond" Allie called out, already on her way to the car. "See you guys back at Homicide".

Following her lead, Rhys made his way back to their car across the car park. "So I was thinking" he started, once he had caught up to her and opened the door on the driver's seat of the car.

"Ha, there's something new" she teased, doing up her seat belt in the passenger's seat.

"Ha, ha, very funny" Rhys responded sarcastically, sitting down and doing the same.

"Ok, so what were you thinking then?" Allie asked, giving him her full attention as he started the car up.

"Well, there's this new Thai place I've been meaning to try, so I was wondering I you'd like to come with me tonight" he asked, looking at her before he let off the handbrake and reversing the car out of the park and onto the road.

"What like on actual date?"

"Yeah, I figured since we've been going out for a week and I haven't taken you out yet it was about time I did" Rhys told her, taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at her. "So is that a yes?"

"Yeah, sound good" Allie grinned, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "That is if we can get away from work before the night's over".

"Mmm" Rhys sighed, hopefully this lead they were on now would give them what they needed, if it didn't they might be spending their evening eating take away with the rest of the team, not exactly the romantic plan he had in mind.

"So here it is; number five" Rhys announced, pulling the car up and parking it by the curb.

"Mmm, there's a car in the driveway so it looks like someone's home" Allie pointed out, opening her door and getting out, Rhys close behind her. The two made their way to the door, job books in hand. Reaching up Allie made a fist and knocked on the wooden door, waiting a few seconds before knocking again a bit louder.

"I'll take a look out the back" Rhys decided, leaving Allie out the front. Walking around the side of the house, he took a careful note of what was around him, looking through any open windows. "Allie!" he yelled, stopping outside the kitchen window.

"Yeah?" she called back coming around to where he was. His eyes were focuses on whatever it was that was inside, following his line of sight she looking into the house, seeing exactly what had caught him off guard; a dead body lying in the middle of the floor, blood everywhere. "Jackie Taylor?"

"Yeah, probably" Rhys answered, taking in a deep breath, "so much for that date tonight".

_Please let me know what you think, I would appreciate any feedback._


	5. Ch 4, I Love You

Here's the next chapter, thanks for the review. =) I love reading them.

_**Chapter 4**_

_**I Love you**_

Two weeks passed by before they found any solid leads on who killed Jackie Taylor and Patrick O'Neil. And now, watching from the viewing room, Allie, Rhys, Duncan and Matt waited as Nick and Jen questioned a man who had turned up as an ex boyfriend of Jackie's; Dan Fitzgibbon.

They had originally thought that the murderer was Nadia Drew, Patrick's girlfriend, but she had held up under questioning, and had fairly solid alibis on both occasions. There was no sign of her hiring someone either, no large amounts of money had been withdrawn from her account, not even a single phone call had been made to anyone who wasn't a family member or friend.

"So how long ago did you and Jackie break up?" Nick asked, standing up behind Jenifer with his note book open. "Mr Fitzgibbon?"

"About six months ago" he finally answered.

"Can you tell us about what happened?"

"Sure, she decided I wasn't worth her time and started seeing someone else". By now Dan was getting fairly edgy, his voice snapped as he answered each question.

"And I bet that pissed you off" Jen commented. "Made you want revenge".

"Yes I was angry, but I didn't do anything to her!"

"Really? Cause our evidence suggests otherwise!"

"Look who ever you've been talking to, there wrong" he yelled, a hint of fear starting to show.

"Oh really, so you didn't stalk her or send her any emails? You didn't call her constantly or chase down her friends to try and get them to talk to her for you?" Nick shot out, slamming his note book on the table and leaning down, placing his hands on the edge of it to hold himself up. Dan didn't say anything. "Mr Fitzgibbon" he started, his voice now calm, "we have several reports of you harassing Jackie Taylor over the last few months, and according to traffic police, you were caught running a red light just around the corner of Jackie's home right after she was murdered".

"I think it's time you started telling us the truth" Jen added, watching Dan's actions carefully.

It took a few moments for him to begin to speak, "I didn't mean to kill her" he sobbed, I just went there to try and talk to her".

"And Patrick O'Neil?" Nick questioned.

"I just got so angry. He had Jackie, yet he already had another girlfriend".

"Gotcha" Matt smiled, letting out a sigh of relief. "Ok, Duncan can you start getting the paper work together, Rhys and Allie, keep an eye on the rest of the interview" he ordered, picking up his files.

"Yes Sarge" Duncan answered, leaving the room.

"Once this is done you guys can record and log the interview. After that your free to turn in for the night" Matt told them, following Duncan out.

"Thanks Sarge" they both called out, grinning at each other. In the last two weeks they hadn't had a chance to do much together aside from work.

"So, how about that date tonight?" Rhys suggested.

"Sounds good" she nodded.

Allie and Rhys sat in the restaurant later that night; the place was fairly quiet for a week night, giving the pair some level of privacy on the outdoor balcony that overlooked the water that glistened in the dim light given by the moon. Dinner had been finished long ago, and their previous conversations had now died down with the topic turning to their relationship. They both went silent for a moment; this was the one topic they had avoided talking about.

"The others can't find out about us" Rhys finally spoke, his nerves beginning to show.

"They're going to find out eventually though; these things have a way of getting out" she answered. They were living in their own fantasy world, something that they couldn't keep doing forever, even though they both wanted to so badly.

"Yeah I know" he sighed, grabbing her hand in his across the table. "I just wish we didn't have to worry about all that".

"Yeah I know me too" she smiled slightly. "There's a few people who wouldn't be too happy about us being together; your aunty for starters".

"Why does she hate you so much?"

"I don't know, she just always has for some reason" Allie though for a second, "we didn't exactly get off to the best start I guess".

"I just wish she could see you the way I do, then I wouldn't have to keep this from her like this". Rhys had always been close to his Aunty Bernie, he was the only other person in their family who had followed her lead and entered the police force, in some ways she'd been more proud of him than his own parents when he graduated from the academy.

Allie watched his facial expressions, this was really tearing him up, and she hated being part of the reason why he was going through this. "Rhys, we can keep avoiding this for as long as we want, but we both know it's only going to make things harder when they do come out if we keep it from everyone".

"Yeah, I know, and I know we need to tell them, but can't we leave if for a bit longer" he pleaded with her, his eyes watering up slightly. "I just... I can't bear the thought of this tearing us apart".

With these words, tears began to form in her eyes aswell, nodding in agreement. "I don't want to lose you" the words came off her lips in a whisper.

"You won't lose me" he promised. Lifting her hand off the table and placing a small kiss on the top of her palm. He never thought it was possible to fall for someone as quickly as he had fallen for her, they'd only been together for three weeks, but yet he knew that she was the one for him. "I love you Al" he spoke softly "and I never want to be without you".

"I love you too" she smiled through her tears, mentally kicking herself for crying, she never cried, especially not when it came to men, but he wasn't like any other man she'd ever been with.

Letting go of his hand, she moved her chair around the table so that she could sit next to him, placing her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist. Rhys responded to this by wrapping his arms around her form, holding her close. Their bodies moulded together as one, there was no way that anyone was going to tear them apart.

_Let me know what you think._


	6. Ch 5, Caught Out

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Caught out**_

A week later

It was a quiet weekend for the homicide squad, and Allie and Rhys were enjoying every minute of it, the two of them lying out on their towels at the beach, and making plans for the next day which was their one month anniversary.

"Can't you just tell me?" Allie begged, lifting her head up from where it had been resting on his bare chest, she didn't like surprises, but yet, Rhys was determined that he wasn't going to tell her what he had planned for them after work the next day.

"Nope".

"Not even a clue?"

"Nope, you'll find out tomorrow night" he smiled, finding some level of amusement out of her desire to know what was going to happen.

"You're no fun" she sulked, burying her head back in his chest before she had another idea as how to get information. "How am I supposed to know what to wear then?"

Rhys chuckled slightly, tightening his grip slightly around her bikini clap body and placing a small kiss on the top of her head. "It's all been taken care of. Nice try though".

After this the conversation died down again, the two laying together in peace. Rhys looked down at her, where she still lay on his chest, wondering to himself about how he had been so lucky to have her. His past girlfriends hadn't been anything like her, usually they were alot less bright, hated the fact that he worked so much, and had him bored after a few dates, but Allie was something else. Just like him, she was passionate about her job, she was bright, funny and intelligent, basically, she was everything that he had wanted, and more. The only think that she had in common with them was the fact that his Aunty couldn't stand her.

Releasing one of his arms from around her, he ran his fingers through her hair, he knew they couldn't keep this a secret forever; they were going to have to face the consequences for their inter-office relationship eventually, even though neither of them wanted to.

Right now, things were perfect, they had each other, and without the fallout from work. He knew that once the others found out they would have a lot of negative questions to answer, along with the possibility of one of them, or both of them being forced to leave homicide; something that would place a strain on their relationship.

Telling the others was something they never talked about, Allie had tried to bring it up a week ago, but they had let it pass by. Once again avoiding the elephant in the room.

Resting his head back again, he took in a deep breath before breaking the silence, "you hungry yet?"

"Mmm, yeah, a little" she sighed, lifting herself off of his body and propping herself on her side next to him.

"Well, how about we go and get some lunch then, there's a couple of places around the corner".

"Sounds good" she smiled, getting up and reaching for her beach dress, quickly pulling it over her head, before chucking Rhys his shirt. "So my house mate's still away tonight" she told him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, thought maybe we could start our anniversary together" she grinned, picking up the last of their stuff and putting it in the beach bag, handing it to Rhys to carry.

Smiling back at her he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her forehead. "I like the sound of that" he answered, as they walked. "I'll just have to come up with a good story as to where I was".

"Out drinking" she suggested.

"on a Sunday night?"

"Yeah good point".

"Oh well, I'll think of something".

After they had finished lunch, Allie and Rhys left the small cafe they had been in, and began the walk back to Rhys' car which was parked back at the beach. "So what do you want to do for the rest of the day?" Rhys asked, looking down at her, his hand in hers as they walked.

"I don't know" she sighed, turning her head to look at him.

"We could go see a movie? Or go back to the beach?"

"Or, she grinned, stopping in the middle of the path and turning her body towards his, "we could head back home and make our own fun" she suggested, raising her eyebrows before leaning in and locking her lips with his.

"Mmm. I like the sound of that" he mumbled against her lips before wrapping his arms around her; not caring who saw them.

"What the hell!" a familiar voice interrupted them. Then turning around their stomachs both sunk in fear, there standing in front of them was the commander herself; and she did not look happy.

_Please review_


	7. Ch 6, The Waiting Game

Author's note: flashbacks are in italics.

_**Chapter 6  
The waiting game**_

When Allie walked into homicide that morning; she hadn't expected to find herself in the situation she was in at that moment. For the last month, to the day, they'd managed to keep their relationship a secret from the people they worked with, but as soon as Commander Waverley had learned of her and Rhys' fleeting relationship, she'd marched straight to Sergeant Wolf's office with Superintendant Javis right behind her, and told him exactly what was going on. Now, she was about to have to face the music.

"_What the hell!" a familiar voice interrupted them. Then turning around their stomachs both sunk in fear, there standing in front of them was the commander herself; and she did not look happy._

_The three of them stood there for a moment, stunned and unsure of what to do next. Then without saying anything, Waverly turned around and walked back the way she had come, shaking her head as she did so._

"_Wait!" Rhys called out, taking off after her, and leaving Allie standing where she was, "would you just let me explain"._

"_We'll talk about this when you get home" she shot out, stopping for a sudden moment, "When I've calmed down". And with that she took off once again, leaving Rhys and Allie to their thoughts._

What Allie could remember most distinctly was the look of horror and disgust at the fact that Rhys was with her. She knew Waverly wouldn't have taken the news well, but she hadn't prepared herself for that, just like Rhys hadn't prepared himself for the look of utter disappointment.

"What do you think Sarge will do?" Rhys whispered, leaning in as he sat on the edge of her desk where they had been working on some files.

"I don't know, but I don't want to find out either" she responded, quiet enough so that the other three couldn't hear them, "but whatever he does I hope he doesn't hand it to Matt to decide".

"Yeah, me too" Rhys answered, with concern written all over his face. "Since Matt's been spending all his efforts trying to prove himself as a sergeant, he'd fire one of us for sure, and with my track record with him it's going to be me".

Allie glanced up for a moment; Waverley hadn't come out of the Sergeant's office yet. She only hoped that he was in a good mood today, the police force didn't encourage inter-office relationships, she'd worked with a girl a few years ago who was transferred to another station because she'd started seeing one of the guys they worked with, Allie certainly didn't want that to happen, her and Rhys both loved their jobs in Homicide.

"What are you two whispering about?" Duncan interrupted them before Allie could say anything else.

"Uhh, nothing" Allie forced a fake smile; in return gaining strange looks from Both Nick and Jen.

Avoiding any more questions, Rhys slipped of the edge of Allie's desk where he had been sitting and placed himself back at his own just in time for his Aunt to come out of Wolf's office with the Sarge, and superintendant close behind her. Pausing for a minute, Bernice stopped and glanced briefly at Allie and Rhys who were both watching her nervously before walking away and entering the elevator with Terry alongside her.

"I have a meeting to attend. Allie, Rhys, I'd like to see you both in my office once I get back in about an hour". Stanley spoke before following the commander's lead and making his way out.

The two both held their breath until they saw the elevator doors shut and the Sergeant was out of sight. "Your Auntie..." Allie muttered under her breath.

"Mmm" Rhys nodded, cutting her off before she mouthed off any more. He tilted his head quickly towards the kitchen indicating for her to follow him before getting up and turning to the others who were watching them both with questioning looks on their faces. "Coffee anyone?" he asked, as Allie got up and left the room.

"No thanks", Nick and Jen both managed to get out, "I'm right too" Duncan added before changing the topic, "what was the Sarge on about?"

"I guess we'll find out" he shrugged, trying his best to not give anything away before walking away with his hands in his pockets. When he entered the Kitchen, he found Allie already there and waiting for him, quietly he closed the door behind him, trying to gain some level of privacy. No words needed to be spoken; the look that passed between the two young detectives said it all; this wasn't going to end well. Rhys crossed his arms over his chest, slowly walking over to where she stood leaning against the edge of the bench.

"I just want to know what's going to happen" Allie whispered, as Rhys wrapped his arms around her waist loosely.

"Yeah I know, me too" he responded, pulling her in close.

With a sigh Allie relaxed into him, resting her head on his shoulder, allowing herself to smile slightly when she felt his lips press against her forehead. She'd never needed anyone before, her whole life she'd been independent, but then when she was with Rhys, it was like they balanced each other out to an even equilibrium; their strengths were where the others' weren't. She only hoped that whatever was about to happen wouldn't ruin what they had.

"Happy Anniversary" she whispered.

"Yeah, happy anniversary" he sighed in response, "I love you Al".

"I love you too".

"Ok, so what the hell is going on with those two?" Duncan finally spoke up, breaking the silence that had filled the room since Rhys had left.

"I don't know" Jen exclaimed, closing the file she had been looking at and chucking it into the top tray on her desk, before turning her attention to him. "Whatever it is though, I think we'd know if it was about this case".

"Mmm" Duncan nodded, leaning back in his chair with his hands on his head. "You don't think their shagging do you? I mean they have been acting weird all week".

"Allie and Rhys?" Nicked questioned, "I highly doubt it".

"Yeah, Nick's right, besides you know Allie's attitude, 'don't screw the crew'".

"Not to mention that she and Rhys' Aunty can't stand each other" Nick added.

"Yeah well maybe that's why the commander stormed into the Sarge's office before... it would explain the look she gave them when she came out".

"You know what I think?" Nick interrupted him, "If if was any of our business then we'd know by now". And with that the conversation ended.

"This is my fault" Rhys sighed, maintaining his tight hold of Allie.

"No it's no-"

"Yeah, it is. If My Aunty wasn't the commander then none of this would have gotten out" he explained, releasing one arm and placing his fingers under her chin, tilting her head so that he could look at her. "I'm sorry; I really thought that we could keep it from her for a little longer". He could still remember how disappointed Bernice had been with him, he'd never seen her like this with him before, even after he had come home later and she had calmed down she still maintained her stance.

"_Look why do you have such a problem with it?" Rhys argued, storming after her down the hallway. "You don't even know the first thing about her"._

"_Oh really? Don't I?"_

"_No you don't. If you just gave her a chance then maybe you'd see her how I do" his voice pleaded._

_Bernice took in a deep breath, her back was turned to him. He was right, she didn't know Allie the way Rhys did, there was only so much you could learn about people when you only saw them at work. "Look regardless of what I think of her, the two of you are work mates, have you not picked up on how these matters are treated in the force?"_

"_Yeah, I have" he answered, "and yes we did try to ignore it at first, but there's only so much you can take before ignoring it affects your work more than doing something about it"._

_Turning around to face him, she paused for a moment before asking the question she had been avoiding. "How long has this been going on?"_

"_It'll be a month as of tomorrow" he told her, almost feeling slightly relieved that he could actually say it now._

_Taking a moment to register what he had just said, Bernice's temper began to build up again, "A month!"_

"_Yeah" he nodded, a little uneasy._

_Shaking her head she picked up the washing basked and stormed off back up to the other end of the house and into the dining room. Rhys didn't follow her this time, instead he emerged about ten minutes later, with a small bag packed in one hand and his keys and wallet in the other. "Well where do you think your going?"_

"_I'm going to stay at Allie's"_

"_Rhys-"_

"_And before you try and talk me out of it, you can't" he shut her off, "Look, whether you like it or not, I'm with her now, and you can either chose to accept it or stay out of it". She went silent, not quite knowing how to respond to his sudden threats, "Now I think its best that we both get some space, so I'll see you tomorrow". He didn't wait to hear what she was about to say next, instead he passed through the dining room and matched out of the house._

"Rhys, its not your fault, these things always have a way of get out, regardless of who finds out about them" Allie assured him, "It's not your fault, if it hadn't been Waverley who found out, it would be someone else around the office who got suss about it".

"Yeah, Maybe".

"Don't beat yourself up about it, we'll find a way to deal with whatever happens" she promised, locking her eyes with his.

Smiling slightly, he ran his fingers through her hair, "yeah we will".


	8. Ch 7, Good Advice

_**Chapter 7.  
Good Advice**_

Rhys had never been the kind of person to feel intimidated by his superiors, growing up with and Aunty who was a Superintendant had ensured that, but as he stood alongside Allie in the office of Detective Senior Sergeant Wolf, he now knew how it felt.

"Now I'm sure your both aware of why your here" Stanley started, sitting down calmly at his desk with Matt standing up beside him.

"Yes sir" they both spoke in unison, maintaining their stance.

"Interoffice relationships are not encouraged in the force, for good reason" he spoke, taking time to consider what exactly he was saying. "Now I am aware that sometimes these things can't be helped, and when you are working such long hours people tend to bond, as I'm sure happened in this situation".

Allie took in a deep breath, dreading the words which she thought were about to come, this, she was sure, was how bad news was delivered. _'Crap, he's totally about to fire me' _she thought, trying to hide her fears.

"Now, normally in this situation, one of you would be transferred to another squad".

'_Oh crap here it comes'._

"But, however, as you would know we are already short staffed at the moment, so we are hesitant to do that straight away before we explore other possible avenues" he explained, taking not of how quickly the two young detectives relaxed, their shoulders which had previously been tense, dropping as they let out a silent sigh of relief. "I will be remaining in conversation about the matter with the superintendant and the commander, but do not relax too much as this does not necessarily mean that you will both be remaining in homicide in the long term, it could possibly only be until we sort out our problems with the lack of staff".

The room was filled with silence for a moment, before Stanley spoke again, Allie and Rhys both grateful that neither of them had been fired on the spot. "So that's all that needs to be said for the moment, now I assume that the rest of the team is unaware of your relationship?"

"Yes Sarge" Rhys nodded.

"Ok then, they will need to be made aware of the situation, in the mean time the two of you will not be pared up on any cases. Is that understood?"

"Yes Sarge".

"Good, now can I trust you two to fill the others in?"

Rhys and Allie glanced at each other for a second; they had never really talked about how they would tell the others about what was going on, it had been something that they had avoided. But they both knew that if they were going to find out, it needed to come from them. "Yeah, we'll fill them in" Allie agreed, looking back at Stanley with an uneasy smile.

"Ok good, you can both go then" he dismissed them, "oh and Allie, Superintendant Javis wishes to see you in his office as soon as possible, I suggest you do that now".

"Ok Sarge, did he say what it was about?" she asked, not sure what to think.

"No he didn't, just that it was important".

Nodding her head in response, Allie made her way out of his office, following Rhys lead, and closing the office door behind her. "So when should we tell the others?" she whispered, soft enough so that the others who were working away at their desks wouldn't hear.

"Well lunch isn't far away; hopefully you'll be done with Javis by then".

"Ok, lunch it is then".

"Mmm, good luck" he smiled before she walked off to the elevator. He waited until the elevator doors shut and Allie was out of sight before he turned to the others who were all looking at him, waiting for an explanation as to why he and Allie had both been dragged into the Sarge's office. Ignoring this he made his way to his desk and sat down; opening up a file he had been working on before and trying to focus.

"Detective Kingston" Javis called out, seeing her through the open door of his office. "Come in and take a seat".

"What's this about sir?" she questioned, sitting down on a chair opposite him.

"It's about you and your boyfriend. I assume you've both just spoken with Stanley?"

"Yes sir" she nodded. Not sure what exactly he was getting at, if this was about her and Rhys she didn't understand why Rhys wasn't brought up here with her.

"Good" he exclaimed, shuffling a little in his desk chair. "Now, what I'm about to say next is off the record".

"Ok"

"Given who your boyfriends Aunty is, it's highly unlikely that we would be moving him anywhere, as I'm sure you probably figured out already".

"Yeah I figured it was a strong possibility"

"And if the relationship between you and the commander wasn't the way it is, chances are we wouldn't be moving you either" he hinted to her, sitting back in his chair, "you getting what I'm suggesting?"

"Yeah I think I am sir" she nodded, chuckling half-heartedly, "you're suggesting I find a way to make Commander Waverley warm to me".

"I didn't say anything" he smirked, "but if I was in your shoes, it would certainly be something I'd take into consideration". Truth was, if he had his way they'd be moving Levitt, and keeping Kingston. Yes, Levitt was well educated, but in this job, experience on the field was essential, something Levitt lacked, the fact that Allie had pulled a guy with a knife off of Rhys' back not long after he'd joined them was proof of that. He like's Allie, in some ways she reminded him of himself, he'd hate to see a dispute between her and the commander put an end to such a promising career.

"Ok thankyou sir" she grinned, getting the message loud and clear, he wasn't supposed to be giving her this kind of advice, but she appreciated it none-the-less. "Was that all?"

"Yeah, that's all; you better get back down stairs".


	9. Ch 8, Kiss and Tell

Thanks for the reviews guys, I really appreciate you taking the time to give me some feedback, I love reading it. Just to answer your question langfieldl, Nick and Jen's relationship did happen in this fic, the end of this chapter should explain a little about what happened, and I'll explore it in later chapters a little more, just didn't want to bring it into the earlier chapters to take any attention away from Allie and Rhys =).

Anyway, here's the next chapter, sorry it's a little short, was a little out of creativity after finishing my uni exams today.

_**Chapter 8  
Kiss and Tell**_

Rhys turned around in his desk chair as he heard Allie's footsteps approach him. "Everything alright?" he asked, seeming a little concerned that she had been dragged into the superintendants office only minutes after they had been dressed down in the Sergeant's.

"Yeah" she smiled, looking around at the other desks and mentally taking a note that the others were all missing. "Javis just wanted to give me a bit of friendly advice".

Rhys gave her a puzzled look in response, this eyes following her as she walked around him and sat down at her desk. "Ok..."

"Basically inferred that you're not going anywhere because of your Aunty, and that if I was on good terms with her then I'd be in the same boat".

"And he dragged you up to his office to tell you all this?"

"Mmm" she nodded before changing the subject, "where are the others?"

"In the break room having lunch", his voice turning more serious. "I think we should go have some lunch too".

"Yeah"

There was a short moment of silence that passed between the two of them before Rhys stood up, taking a few steps towards her and holding his hand out. Giving her a small yet nervous smile, she reached her hand out to take his, pulling herself up from her chair and following close behind him to the kitchen; this was it.

The room went quiet when they entered, once filled with laughter from some joke Dunny had been telling, now turned to three blank looks in their direction.

Taking a step forward, Rhys let his hand slip from Allie's, who was directly behind him. "So..." he started, turning his eyes to Allie who now stood beside him. "I suppose your all wondering what was going on this morning".

"Yeah, only slightly" Jen spoke up, taking a sip of coffee from her mug.

"So are you too going to fill us in or are you just going to stand there?" Dunny added, getting up and rinsing out his cup before placing it in the sink.

"Yeah, we'll fill you in" Allie managed to get out, pulling a chair out from the table, and sitting herself down.

"Has this got anything to do with the case?" Nick quizzed, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"No" Allie answered, her eyes not focuses on any of the others as she focused on what she was trying to say, "This doesn't have anything to do with the case... or work".

"Well, then... why did you too get dragged into the Sarge's office over it?" Dunny asked, looking around at them, before he spoke again, "are you too sleeping together?"

"Duncan!" Nick and Jen both shot out, looking around at him. Allie or Rhys didn't quite know how to respond to this, both turning to each other for some kind of support.

"No guys, it's a fair question" he justified himself, "Well?"

"Uhh" Allie's tongue got caught in her throat.

"Yeah" Rhys stepped in, still standing not far behind her.

Jen and Nick, who had both been previously death staring Duncan, now turned their attention towards Allie and Rhys. No one knew quite what to say to this revelation. They all knew that Allie and Rhys had always been close, but they all assumed that it was just as friends, not lovers.

"So, um... How long has this been going on?" Nick broke the silence, sitting back in his chair.

"A month, to the day" Allie explained, as Rhys finally sat down next to her at the head of the table and took her hand which rested on the table. Only then did she realise that she had been holding her breath.

"And I'm guessing Waverley found out?"

"Yeah" Rhys sighed, "yeah she did".

"Ha, I bet your her favourite person right now Allie" Duncan laughed, returning to his seat.

"Yeah thanks Duncan" she shot back at him sarcastically. Thinking about what Javis had told her earlier, Allie tried to think of how she was supposed to do to fix things, and she had no ideas on how she was going to, especially when she didn't even know what she'd done to piss her off so much in the first place.

"So if you two are seeing each other, then what's happening about your jobs?" Jen asked curiously.

"Well, for the moment nothings changing, apparently were too short staffed. All that's changed is that Rhys and I aren't to be pared up on anything". Allie was about to say something else before they were interrupted by Matt entering the room.

"We've got another murder" he informed the all, "Allie and Jen I want you on this one". And with that Jen and Allie got up and left, taking a post-it-note off of matt with the address of the crime scene on it.

"So you and Allie hey?" Duncan raised his eyebrows in Rhys' direction once Matt, Jen, and Allie had all left. "Nice work Rhys" he congratulated him, pausing for a second, "how did you manage that?"

Rhys laughed at this comment, "thanks for the vote of confidence".

"Anytime"

Nick was silent in this conversation. Seeing Allie and Rhys face up to going public in the office now had him wondering if things could have been different for him and Jen. Looking back down at the newspaper which was open in front of him, he thought back to the time when he had her, it might have only been for a little while, but it was the best few months of his life, and he had ruined it by trying to stop all the secrecy that went along with hiding their relationship from the team. If only she had agreed to it, then maybe, just maybe, they would have gotten the same result as Allie and Rhys had gotten, and they could have both stayed in their jobs for the time being as well.


	10. Ch 9, A White Flag

Thanks for the lovely reviews guys, I really appreciate it. Sorry it's taken me so long to update, hope you enjoy. =)

_**Chapter 9**_

_**A White Flag**_

"I just called the Sarge, he said he'd be down as soon as possible" Allie called out to Jenifer who was sitting on the bonnet of the car. Crossing the road, she sat down next to her and placed her job diary behind her.

"Good, he needs to see this one" Jen pointed out. "We'll need to go back in there once crime scene is finished, see if we can get some idea who this woman was". The murder had taken place in an abandoned house out on the outskirts of Melbourne. Normally about now they'd be doing a death knock to the next of kin, but with no ID on the woman, she had been labelled as a Jane Doe, leaving them the puzzle of figuring out who she was before they could start searching for a killer.

"what a crazy day" Allie sighed, it was only two o'clock and already she'd thought she would lose her job, spent time in the sergeant's office as well as the Superintendant's, and now she could add a murder scene to the list.

"Yeah, it had been a big one for you". Jen mused; Allie was the last person she would have thought of as getting themselves into an inter-office relationship. "So you and Rhys... Didn't see that one coming".

"Mmm". Truth was Allie hadn't seen it coming either, the chemistry between the two of them had been building up for ages, but she had been determined that she wouldn't get involved or act on her feelings. But somehow, Rhys had won her over, and before long, he had captured her heart. "We got good at sneaking around, that's for sure".

"Yeah, you have to, to keep those kinds of secrets locked away".

Allie opened her mouth to say something, losing the words before they could come out. What was that supposed to mean? By the way she was talking it was almost as if she had been doing some sneaking around of her own.

"Can I tell you something in confidence?"

"Yeah"

"You remember when you asked me and nick if we were shagging?"

"Yeah" she nodded, suddenly realising where this was going, Jen and Nick? Surely not.

"Well we weren't then, but..." she paused, "once we went back undercover, things changed".

"So you two have been seeing each other then?"

"Well... We were" she started, "but then... Things got messy". She explained, before going on to tell Allie the whole story of what had taken place.

Rhys walked carefully as he approached his Aunties office. He'd been trying to get a chance to come and see her ever since lunch, only now two hours later finding the opportunity when Nick and Duncan had gone to speak with missing persons about anyone who had been reported that matched their Jane Doe. Raising his fist to the door, he knocked on the wood sternly, waiting until he heard the familiar voice call out. "Come in".

Turning the handle, he swung the door open, stepping into the room cautiously.

"Rhys" Bernice spoke, she hadn't expected to have this conversation until after work, she wasn't ready for this just yet.

"Have you calmed down enough so that we can have a civil conversation?"

"I guess so" she answered, watching as he came and sat down in the chair on the other side of her desk. There was an orquad moment of silence before either of them spoke, "So I assume that Sergeant Wolf has spoken to you both?"

"Yeah thanks for putting us in it" he shot back, forcing a smile as he looked up at her. "What's your problem? If this was anyone else there wouldn't be such a big issue over it".

"Rhys she is your co worker!"

"Yeah, she is" he sighed, folding his hands together on his knees. "But that's not what's got you so angry about this is it? You've got some vendetta against her haven't you?"

Bernice scoffed at this, "my opinion of Kingston has nothing to do with this".

"Yeah it does, the sooner you admit that, the sooner we can get on with this".

"Ok, so yes I don't like the girl". Taking a deep breath, she tried to think of what exactly she didn't like about Allie, truth was she didn't exactly know. "Why her?" she finally asked.

"What?"

"Why her? Out of all the girls you've ever gone for, why her?"

"Because I love her!" Rhys shot out, causing Bernice to suddenly go quiet at this revelation. "I love her" he reinforced the point. "Is it really too much to ask you to just give her a chance. I don't expect you to be best friends with the girl".

"And what exactly do you expect me to do? Bond with her over a cup of tea?" she asked sarcastically.

Rhys rolled his eyes at this; she could be a pain in the ass sometimes. "Look, I'm sure you'll figure something out".

"We don't even have anything in common".

"You don't know that because you hardly know her" he pointed out, "Look you both seem to take a liking to me, that's a start". He got no response to this, simply a small nod. "I've got to get back to my desk. Could you at least promise me that you'll at least go easier on her?"

"Ok" she managed to force out, realising that some of this mess was in fact her fault. With that Rhys nodded his head and gave her a small and grateful smile before he left.

Allie was in shock as she finished listening to Jen explain her and Nick's relationship. Nick had gotten down on one knee and offered her everything; marriage, kids, a whole life, but yet, Jen had turned him down for her job. "Wow" she managed to get out, still trying to get her head around the fact that she had turned him down, she had always thought that Jen; as much as she loved her job, was the kind of woman who would have jumped at the chance to become a mother.

"Yeah"

"So... that explains that foul mood Nick was stuck in for weeks a while back".

"Yeah, sorry, that was my fault".

"No don't be sorry", she told her, "what I don't get is why you ended it; he was willing to transfer out of homicide for you".

"Yeah I know, it was just..." she paused for a minute, "he was talking like he had everything figured out, you know. Settle down, have kids, I didn't think I was ready for that back then".

"And now?"

"I don't know".


	11. Ch 10, The Reality of it All

_**Chapter 10  
The reality of it all**_

Allie force a smile when she finally reached her destination, seeing Rhys there waiting for her, sitting on a beautifully set out picnic on the edge of a jetty looking out over the water. "Hey you" she whispered, trying to hide the level of discomfort she was feeling at that moment, lowing herself down next to him. How could he do this to her? Only a day ago she hadn't realised just how much of her independence she was losing by being with him, and now after the last few hours, it was finally beginning to show.

"You made it" he smiled, placing his arms around her waist. Completely unaware of how unhappy she was.

"Mmm I did".

-0-

_Flash Back, a few hours earlier:_

_Allie lugged herself back to her desk, letting out deep sigh as she thought about how many hours she'd waisted that afternoon looking through missing person's files which had gotten her absolutely nowhere. "Any luck?" Jen asked._

"_Nope" Allie shot back at her, "a complete waste of time, if she has been reported missing then she's been missing a long time, we couldn't find anyone from the last six months who matches her description"._

"_Oh well looks like we'll have to see what response we get from the media appeal, maybe someone will recognise her"._

"_Yeah maybe" she agreed, opening up another file, "speaking of the media appeal, I should probably get onto the media unit, and make sure they've got everything they can release"._

"_Um, how about I take care of that" Jen offered._

"_Nah, thanks but you've already got heaps to do, I can handle it"._

"_Allie, it's your anniversary, haven't you got better places to be?" she told her, pointing to a letter that was sitting on Rhys' desk. "Rhys asked me to make sure you got that, and that you were out of here before six"._

_With a look of curiosity on her face Allie, got up and picked up the folded piece of paper with her name written on the front of it. Unfolding it, she carefully read the message that was inside it:_

_ Allie,_

_I know this isn't quite how we'd planned on spending our anniversary, but I still have a surprise for you, back at your place you'll find some clothes I picked out and an address of where I am. Meet me there at seven._

_I love you  
Rhys._

"_Yeah you're right, I do have better places to be" Allie grinned, her mind focused on what it was that Rhys could be planning for her. "Thanks Jen"._

"_That's ok. You have a good time"_

"_Oh I will, see you tomorrow"._

_-0-_

_When she got home she entered the bedroom to find a casual dress and flat shoes laid out on the bed, will a bunch of roses in a vase sitting on her bedside table. That was when it had hit her._

_She never let her boyfriends take away her independence before, but yet here he was, picking her clothes for her. She was the type of girl who never let her date pick something off the menu for her; every decision about her was made by her, if she wanted something, she did it herself. And now he was changing her, something she had promised herself wouldn't happen._

_A tear rolled down her check, she knew he wasn't doing it on purpose, surely this didn't mean anything right? She was still her own person; just will a few small changes that were coming into place. But even though she told herself this, she couldn't fight the nagging feeling inside her saying that she couldn't do this._

_Pulling herself together, she picked up a piece of paper attached to the flowers with an address written on it, got herself ready and left the house._

_End of flashback_

_-0-_

Allie managed to get through dinner without feeling the need to run. The whole evening was beautiful, in fact it was perfect, the moon glistened over the water and the jetty was dimly lit up from its glow, as well as the light coming from a row of houses in the distance behind them. The picnic rug had pillows scattered around the edges, making it extremely comfortable. Feeling Rhys' eyes on her where he lay next to her, Allie tried harder to holding back the tears that she had been fighting, she buried her head in his chest, hoping that he wouldn't notice the pain that was building up inside her of her.

"I Love you Allie Kingston" he whispered, placing a small firm kiss on the top of her head and holding her body close to his.

"I love you too" she responded. That was the problem, she loved him, sure she'd said this to other people before, but that was different. That was before she'd fallen in love with Rhys, if only she'd known what this would end up doing to her back before all this happened. Back when she could stand on her own two feet by herself.

Now it was too late to back out, after today everything had changed, she'd put her career on the line for him, actually it was still on the line, and now the independent woman who she used to be was slowly changing. She longed for the naive state she had been in only hours ago, before the reality of all this had hit her, this was really happening. Leaving him now would only end up hurting her more.

This wasn't like her.

And at that moment she began to realise things she had over looked in the last month of their relationship, all the times she hadn't done things and had let him do them for her, all the times she would have normally felt just as claustrophobic as she did now. This wasn't just about a dress and flowers anymore; he'd picked her food from the menu, opened the car door for her, him driving her around, the way he held her when she was upset, and told her everything was going to be ok, and that was only the start. How could she have completely let her guard down like this in only a month?

This wasn't her...


	12. Ch 11, The Cracks That Form

_Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I updated, I've been on holiday mode, =). I made this chapter a bit longer to make up for it. Enjoy._

_**Chapter 11  
The cracks that form**_

The next morning Allie was the first to get to work; Rhys was still asleep in her bed when she had left. She had thought about waking him up, but she needed some space, so instead she had left him a note saying she would see him when he got to work later.

"Morning Allie" Jen's voice greeted her cheerfully as she placed a takeaway cup of coffee on her desk across the room from Allie's.

"Morning" she looked up to see Jen approaching her.

"Detectives" Karen interrupted them before their conversation could go any further, "We've just got a call from someone saying they think they know the girl you guys have been trying to identify, she'll be on her way in soon".

"Did she say how she knew her?" Allie asked.

"Close friend" Karen explained, "I'll let you know as soon as she gets here".

"Thanks Karen" Jen smiled as Karen made her way back out of the room. "Oh well that's good then".

"Yeah, let's just hope that she can give us something to go off".

"Mmm" Jen agreed, pulling up a chair and sitting down at the side of Allie's desk. "How was your night?"

"Yeah it was alright" she sighed, truth was it was picture perfect, Rhys was the perfect gentlemen, the night was beautiful, but she was all messed up inside.

"Just alright?"

"Well"... She started, hesitating slightly, her and Jen hadn't ever really been too close, so they didn't talk about these kinds of things, but then again Jen had opened up to her about her relationship with Nick yesterday, maybe it was her turn to share.

"Did something go wrong?"

"Not exactly... something was wrong with me".

-*-~AE~-*-

When Rhys woke up that morning he rolled over and reached out to pull Allie's body in for a hug, only to find that she was not there and all that was left in her place was a small piece of paper. His eyes opened wider and he found himself suddenly more awake then he was before, sitting up he opened the paper and quickly read what was written on it. "Why wouldn't she wake me up?" he asked himself, feeling a little uneasy about her sudden exit, come to think of it, she hadn't been herself last night either, "maybe she got called in" he reasoned, not wanting to believe that something was wrong.

Pulling himself out of bed, he quickly got dressed and made his way out to the kitchen where Allie's house mate Jemma was sitting eating breakfast, "morning Rhys".

"Morning"

"What's up with Allie?"

"I don't know, she left before I woke up" he sighed, taking a seat at the table across from her.

"Mmm, she's not herself at all" Jemma added, "She seemed upset when she left".

"Upset?"

"Yeah, like she's bottling it up and avoiding it" she explained, watching closely as a worried look formed on Rhys' face. "I think you need to find out what's wrong".

-*-~AE~-*-

Rhys raced into homicide and managed to get into the elevator just before the doors had closed, he needed to find Allie. Jemma and Allie had been best friends since they were in Kindergarten, she knew Allie better than anyone, so if she told him he needed to talk to her and that she wasn't herself, then he really needed to talk to her. They've identified our girl" Duncan informed him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah; Maria Hope. Allie and Jen are down talking to a close friend who turned up this morning" he explained. "Sarge wants you to run backgrounds on her, see what you can find out".

"Yeah alright, I'm on to it then". Turning back around he typed Maria's name into the police search engine, trying to focus his attention on the task at hand.

Twenty minutes later Allie and Jen appeared back in the room, job books in hand. "So what did you find out?" Duncan asked, looking up from what he was doing.

"Single, lives by herself, only a few close friends in the picture, no family" Jen explained.

"She basically lived a quiet life" Allie added, taking note of Rhys suddenly placing his hand in hers as she walked past his chair.

"Mmm, nothing in her background checks either" Rhys joined the conversation, "not so much as a speeding ticket on her record".

"We got a list of all her friends" Allie spoke, letting her hand slip out of Rhys', "we'll need to speak with them soon, get a clear picture of their relationship with her".

"Yeah, and some backgrounds into all of them would be good too" Duncan nodded in Rhys direction.

"Ok then, I'm going to fill the Sarge in" Jen announced, "then we should probably start talking to some of these people Allie". Jen picked up her job book and walked into the Sarge's office, closing the door behind her, as Duncan walked into the kitchen to make himself a coffee, leaving Allie and Rhys alone at their desks.

Their eyes met for a second before Rhys spoke. "You didn't wake me up this morning".

"Yeah, I thought you needed the sleep" she smiled, "you looked so peaceful. I would have stayed but I wanted to make some more progress".

"Allie" Rhys started, "is everything alright?"

"Yeah why wouldn't it be?"

"Because you don't seem yourself" he told her.

"I'm fine" she lied, "look it hasn't been the easiest few days, it's just all been getting to me a bit, but I'll be ok" she forced a smile.

"really?"

"really" she reassured him.

"Things will get better" he promised her, moving his desk chair closer to her and taking her hand which was rested on the edge of her desk. "And as for my Aunty, don't worry about her; I've already had a word to her"

"You did? When?"

"Yesterday, but like I said, don't worry about her, I've got it sorted and she's starting to come round".

Allie took a few seconds to register what he was saying. "What the hell were you thinking!" she shot out at him snatching her hand back from him, she was so mad right now.

"Well something needed to be done and I figured that she would take it better if it came from me" he explained, not quite understanding why she was so angry about this.

"And when exactly were you planning on telling me that you thought this was such a brilliant idea?"

"I'm telling you now".

"Yeah, after you've already gone and done it!"

"I don't see what the big deal is; I was only trying to help you and get this sorted out".

"I don't need you to sort this out, and I don't need you to fight my battles for me". Before Rhys even had the chance to respond to this Allie got out of her chair and took off out the door, heading straight to the only place she ever got any privacy; the girls bathrooms.


	13. Ch 12, Avoidance

_Hey guys here's the next chapter. Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a good one._

_**Chapter 12  
Avoidance**_

A tear rolled down Allie's check as she sat curled up in the corner of the bathroom, her words rung over and over in her head; 'I don't need you to sort this out, and I don't need you to fight my battles for me'. She didn't quite understand how she'd managed to let herself say all of that, she'd been trying so hard to hold it all together, but somehow, it had all fallen apart. The look on his face had been the worst part, by hurting him, she was hurting herself. She was in too deep.

Her attention was suddenly drawn to a creaking sound as the door opened and Jennifer's head popped. "Are you ok Allie?"

"I will be" she sobbed, wiping away more tears before they could run too far down her face.

Stepping inside the bathroom properly, Jen closed the door behind her, "I'll take that as a no" she sighed as she sat herself down next to her. "Rhys said you too got in an argument". As soon as she'd gotten back to her desk and was ready for them both to go, Rhys had turned to her completely stunned, and somewhat lost for words, 'something's wrong with Allie' he'd managed to get out. And he was right, something was definitely wrong will her, she'd known that this morning when she'd listened to her explain what was going on, but only now did she realise the full extent of how she was feeling.

"I don't know what happened to me, I just..." she stopped mid sentence. There were no words to explain. Most women would tell her she was being stupid, they'd tell her she had an amazing man who any woman would be more than happy to have; a man who loved her. Maybe that's why she had opened up to Jen; because she could understand where she was coming from, something most women couldn't.

"You know what we need?"

"What".

"A girls night out" Jen told her, "no boys or any talk of them allowed".

Allie smiled slightly. It totally sounded like something she would normally hate, but hey, she wasn't herself at the moment so it was worth a try, "yeah that sounds good, I think I need some space from Rhys".

"Mmm" she nodded in agreement, "it gets a bit much sometimes, working together, sleeping together, before you know it you're with them nearly every minute of your day".

"Yeah, I'm starting to realise why they don't like interoffice relationships in the force" Allie commented. "It just feels so claustrophobic".

The two women went silent for a minute, Allie finally pulling herself together again as the tears stopped. "See look what he's doing to me now; I never cry, not over this sort of thing" she giggled slightly trough her tears.

Jen smiled in understanding at this comment, she knew what she meant by this, sometimes love could make you do thinks you never would have done; sometimes even things you promised yourself you wouldn't do.

"So tonight?" Allie changed the subject, attempting to pull herself together somewhat.

"Yeah, I'm free tonight" Jen thought for a minute, "maybe we should ask Karen along?"

"Mmm, and I'll see if Jemma's free" Allie added, "It's probably about time you met her", and truth was she kind of needed her best friend right now.

"Sounds like a plan" Jen grinned. "But in the mean time we have people to interview. Are you up for it".

"Yeah" she nodded, "just give me a minute and I'll meet you out there".

"Ok then" she agreed, squeezing her shoulder before getting up and leaving the room.

When She got back out, She found Rhys waiting rather eagerly, "Is she ok?" he shot out, his hands placed on his hips and his body tense.

"She will be" was all she told him, trying to get past him.

"Wait Jen" he stopped her, "I don't know what to do". She had to feel sorry for him on some level, he was in love will Allie and completely oblivious as to what he was doing to her.

"Just give her some space" she simply said before leaving him alone in the corridor.

-*-~AE~-*-

The end of the day came soon enough, as waisted as it seemed. Jen and Allie now entering back into the building after spending all day talking with the friends of Maria Hope. "Ah here they both are" Duncan announced as he got up from his desk. "We were just talking about going for a drink, you girls in?"

"Well we're going for a drink, but not with any of you" Jen answered him, smiling when she noticed the confused look on his face "girl's night".

"Oh I see so where not good enough for you too now are we?" he joked.

Allie's mind zoned out of the conversation as he eyes met with Rhys'; the two of them both ignoring the childish conversation that now took place between Jen and Duncan. After Allie had stormed off earlier, they hadn't spoken, in a way Allie thought she should have explained things to him, but she wasn't quite ready for that yet. Taking a few more steps, she passed him, sitting down in her own desk as she put away her notes from the day. "So you're having a girl's night then?"

"Yeah" she smiled, slightly at him, his facial expressions now doing the same. At least they were talking. "Jen thought it might be a good idea.

Rhys just nodded at this. He didn't know how he was going to get through to her, or how to even try and start to understand what was going on in her head at the moment. Making a conscious decision to tread carefully he forced himself not to bring up anything to do with their relationship. "Sounds like fun".

"Oh well" Duncan gave up, "Rhys you ready to go get a drink".

"Yeap" he sighed, turning off this computer before he got up and put is jacket back on which had been resting on the back of his chair.

Allie's eyes were still on him while he did this, she waited till he looked back at her to place her index finger on her cheek and tap it a few times. Rhys grinned, more genuinely than before, knowing what she was asking, the small gesture putting his mind at ease. He stepped forward, leaning down to her level so that he could kiss her on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow" she whispered.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow" he responded cupping the back of her neck and running his thumb along the side of her face.

"Oi, lover birds" Duncan interrupted them before anything else could happen. "Do you think you can tear yourselves away long enough for us to get the pub?"

"Go on then" Allie chuckled, "off you go, don't get him too drunk Dunny" she ordered.

"Ha, yeah, I can't promise anything" Duncan turned his head to see Nick walking in. "Nick, meet you at the pub?"

"Yeah I'll see you down there" he told him throwing his note pad down on the desk before turning his attention to Jen who was packing up her stuff. His stance relaxed at her presence. "You getting a drink with us too?"

"No, not tonight" she smiled.

"Really?" his big eyes looked back at her, "I can't twist your arm?"

"No" she forced the words out, managing to turn to look at Allie who seemed quite amused about something, "Allie, you ready to go?"

"Yeap" she answered, pulling herself out of her chair and walking over to Jen who was ready and waiting. "See you tomorrow Nick".

"Yeah see you Nick".

"See you" he replied, watching as the two left and he was once again alone at his desk.

Allie waited until the lift doors closed before she spoke, "so looks like I'm not the only one who needs some space from the boys" she smirked.

"Mmm" Jen sighed, "was it that obvious?"

"Yeap" she shot back, stating the obvious truth.

"Damn. Why is it so complicated?"

"Find out an well all know" Allie chuckled, "but it's girls night now, so no Nick".

"and no Rhys" she finished her off. Maybe this was exactly what they both needed.


	14. Ch 13, You're Not Yourself

_**Chapter 13**_

_**You're not yourself**_

"Who wants another round?" Duncan spoke up, looking around at Nick and Rhys. He had to say, that neither of them had been acting like themselves that night, ever since the girls had gone off to do their own thing they'd not had alot to say and getting a laugh out of either of them was nearly impossible.

"I might call it a night" Rhys told him, letting out a sigh and getting down off the bar stool.

"Yeah me too, I'm buggered" Nick agreed.

"Come on guys; where's the fun in that? Don't tell me you're both missing the girls already".

Nick shook his head and laughed slightly at Duncan's efforts to get them to stay; he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of giving in. Leaning back with his hands on the edge of the bar he sighed, "I'll see you tomorrow".

"Alright then" Duncan gave in, turning his attention to Rhys as Nick left. "So can I twist your arm then? Come on one more".

"Alright, one more then" Rhys gave in.

Nick looked back when he opened the door, chuckling slightly when he noticed that Rhys had been roped into staying. As he stepped out onto the footpath, his mind drifted to the one person he had wanted to have a drink with; Jennifer Mapplethorpe.

He hadn't let it show earlier, but he had been slightly disappointed when she'd told him that she wasn't coming out with them, and was instead going out with the girls, any day when he could spent even a little amount of time with her out of work was a good day for him.

They'd been separated for a few months now, and he'd spent all of that time wishing that he'd done something different. Although he'd only been with her a little while he'd been with her long enough to know that she was the one for him. If only she could realise that too, then maybe he wouldn't be going home to a quiet house and an empty bed.

All he wanted right now was to hold her in his arms, but he couldn't even do that.

It wasn't fair.

-*-~AE~-*-

"You know" Allie drunkenly slurred across the table as she held a half full bottle of bear in one hand. "I have been single for four years. And what does he do? He comes along and becomes a permanent fixture in my life in less than a month".

Jemma looked on in amusement as she watched her friend ramble on about the one thing she wasn't even supposed to be thinking about that night, luckily for her, Jen and Karen were both talking to someone at the bar so Jen wasn't there to kick her ass back into line. "I mean how the hell did it all happen so quickly?"

"Yeah well I didn't see you complaining about any of that up until the other day" Jemma chuckled, taking another sip of her beer which she had been consuming at a much slower rate than Allie for the last two hours. As much as she hated seeing her friend like this, the drunken version of Allie's overanalysing and vocal thoughts were quite entertaining to watch.

"Yeah, that's because he lulled me into a false sense of security" she sighed, sculling the last bit of liquid out of the bottle and thumping it down on the table.

"So if it's all so terrible then why are you still with the guy?"

Allie suddenly went quiet, finding a coaster on the table to fiddle with as she avoided looking at her best friend. Hoping that she wouldn't have to reveal the one tiny yet significant detail which made it so hard to even think about leaving him.

"Wait no..." Jemma suddenly realised, "do you love him?" she shot out, leaning in closer and waiting for a response. "Come one Allie don't avoid looking at me, you love him don't you?"

Allie bit her lip, slowly tilting her head up to look at Jemma, "is it that obvious?"

"No" she answered sarcastically, "what do you think? Allie, you've just spent the last twenty minutes telling me how you're losing your independence and how claustrophobic you feel cause you can never get away from him... You're not yourself at the moment, the Allie I know would have dumped his sorry ass the minute he started doing anything for you".

Once again Allie remained silent, sighing and giving a small nod. She was right, If Rhys was anyone else; she would have dumped him long ago. But he wasn't anyone else, and nothing she could do could change that.

"You need to talk to him".

"Yeah I do" she agreed, getting up out of her chair, "I need to explain all this".

"Wait not right now you don't" Jemma tried to stop her, "Al, your extremely tipsy right now, now is not a good time to be talking to Rhys".

"But if I don't do it now I'll lose my nerve and end up having another conversation like we did earlier where we avoid the problem".

"Yeah maybe, but you're not thinking straight at the moment, trust me you might want to see him right now, but you'll thank me in the morning".

"Don't tell me you were thinking of going to see Rhys?" Jen interrupted as she placed another round of drinks on the table.

"Not at all" Allie faked a smile, reluctantly sitting herself back down at the table.

"Good" Jen smiled back, not entirely believing her, "Who wants another one?"


	15. Ch 14, Something to Hide

_**Chapter 14  
Something to Hide**_

Rhys got home later that night to find his Aunt sitting at the dining room table reading the newspapers from that day. "Hey sweaty" she greeted him, slightly surprised to see him, "your home early. You're not at Allie's tonight?"

"Nah, she's having a night out with the girls".

"Oh, lucky her then".

"Yeah" he sighed, raising his eyebrows and slumping himself into a chair, "lucky her" he muttered under his breath.

"Are you ok?" Bernice asked, curious about her nephew's behaviour.

"Yeah, just a long day" he lied, forcing a more upbeat tone. "So how was your day?"

"Good, not too busy" she told him, "I will have to leave town tomorrow for a couple of nights thought".

"Really what for?"

"Just another conference I need to make an appearance at" she explained, "so how's the case progressing".

"We found out who our Jane Doe was no idea on who would have wanted to kill her though".

"Oh well, at least its progress".

"Yeah, doesn't stop it from being frustrating though". Stopping for a minute he realised that this was the most civil conversation that they had had in a while, maybe things were turning around. "Do you want to play a game of 500?" They used to play all the time but in the last month he'd hardly been home or spent much time with her at all.

A smile appeared on Bernice's face, a smile Rhys hadn't seen in a while, "yeah that would be good".

-*-~AE~-*-

_The next day - in the bull pen._

"Ok so what have we got then?" Matt asked as he entered the room where Allie, Jen and Nick were.

"Allie and I talked to one of the neighbours this morning who said he'd seen a guy in his late twenties to early thirties who was making regular visits to Maria's home during the day when Maria wasn't working" Jen explained, pulling out some photo's from a file in front of her and handing them to Matt. "We got a face fit from him and matched it to some of the images we pulled off her security camera".

"Do we know who this guy is yet?"

"No not yet" Allie told him, "Duncan's running a search right now, so hopefully we'll know something soon".

"Do you recon he could be our killer?"

"I don't know" she answered, "but I think he's our best bet right now".

"Yeah" Nick agreed, "everyone else who knew her told us that they had no idea who would have wanted to kill her".

"Alright then, good work let me know when you have something more" Matt told them before moving to leave the room.

"Detectives" Karen entered the bull pen, "there's a woman named Amy Morrison downstairs who you talked to yesterday, she says she has some more information".

"Ok then, Allie, Jen you go and talk to her, see what she has to say" Matt ordered.

-*-~AE~-*-

"There was this guy Maria met a few months ago, his name was Harrison" Amy explained to Jen and Allie who were sitting opposite her in the interview room. "He was just at her house one day when I stopped by, Maria said that she'd met him a few weeks before and that she was helping him with something".

"And did she say what she was helping him with?" Allie asked, trying to help her get to the point.

"No, she just said she would come and see me later and talk, but there was something not quite right about the whole thing, like she was hiding something from everyone, then after that she started going out more and being busier."

"And did you see this Harrison guy again?"

"No... and I didn't think anything of it at the time, but since yesterday I just started piecing things together in my head" she told them, starting to sound worried, "what if she was meeting up with him and he was the one who killed her?"

"Amy" Jen spoke up, "can you tell us anything about this guy?"

"Umm... he had dark hair; he was probably about thirtyish, maybe a little younger". As Amy said this, Allie pulled out the photos from the security camera, placing them in front of her so that she could see them. "That's him" she shot out before Allie could even ask.

"Ok" Allie said, "so this is Harrison, Amy can you tell us anything else about him, his last name maybe?"

"Umm..." Amy thought, "Maria introduced him as... Harrison... Harrison..." she continued, looking closely at the photo's as she tried to recall the name. "Davies!" she finally exclaimed, "Harrison Davies".

"Ok, Harrison Davies, Thankyou Amy, we will definitely track this guy down" Jen reassured her.

-*-~AE~-*-

Two hours later, after doing searches for Harrison Davies and finding that he had been staying at a hotel for the past four months. Allie and Jen had brought Harrison in for questioning, arresting him after he refused to cooperate with them.

"Allie, are you ready?" Jen called out as she stepped out of the elevator and walked towards where Allie was sitting at her desk.

"Almost" she answered, not once taking her eyes off of her computer screen. "You should take a look at this Jen".

"Ok, what am I looking at?"

"I think, I think Harrison might not be his real name".

"What do you mean?" Jen asked, slightly confused. "We found credit cards in his name, as well as medical records".

"Yeah but that's all recent stuff. Before five months ago there isn't any record of him. No credit cards, bank accounts, addresses, medical records, not so much as a cent to his name" she explained, looking slightly concerned.

"So he's created an alias for himself. He's certainly got alot to hide" she said, sitting herself down on the edge of Allie's desk.

"Yeah, and now he's got alot of explaining to do" she sighed, getting up out of her chair, "alright, let's go talk to him".

"I'm afraid that won't be possible" Karen started, after she overheard the last of Jen and Allie's conversation as she approached them. "Harrison was just released".

"What?" Allie and Jen both exclaimed in unison.

"But we haven't talked to him yet" Jen panicked.

"Wait, who authorised this release?" Allie asked.

Karen paused for a minute before she answered, looking over her shoulder into Matt's office where Javis was dumping some paper work on his desk. "Sergeant Ryan did".

_Please let me know what you think =)._


	16. Ch 15, A Natural Response

_**Chapter 15  
A Natural Response**_

"Sarge can I have a word?" Allie spoke up as she walked into Matt's office where he was working on some of Javis' paper work that he had just handballed to him.

"Sure" Matt responded, a little uneasy about her tone, "what's this about detective?"

"It's about you letting a suspect go before Jen and I had the chance to interview him about the women he potentially murdered!"

"Allie-"

"No sir, we dragged in a man who we had good reason to question about how he knew Maria Hope, and before we had a chance to do so you told uniforms to cut him loose".

"You didn't have any evidence to hold him" Matt finally put his foot down, "so yes I told uniforms to let him go because we couldn't keep him any longer".

Both Allie and Matt turned their heads towards the door as Rhys came in with a few files to put on Matt's desk, the two of them only pausing for a second before turning back to their argument.

"We just got him here half an hour before" Allie protested.

"She's right Sarge" Rhys backed her up, "we could have held him here longer".

Allie glared at him, mentally stabbing Rhys for getting involved. She didn't need him to fight her battles for her. "Look my point is, even though the evidence was circumstantial, it would have been good if we had gotten the chance to hear what he had to say about it".

"I'm going to say this once, and once only because this is confidential" Matt told them. "The man you and detective Mapplethorpe dragged in earlier is an undercover officer working for the Federal Police and as soon as I was made aware of the situation by the commander I let him go because it was what we were instructed to do" he explained, noticing how silent the two detectives had become. "The commander is currently in negotiations with the feds to try and get your guy in here to fill us in as to what he knows about our case, but until then we will continue to search other avenues. Now if that's all then you can both get out of my office and get some sleep before tomorrow, were going to have a big day".

"Yes sir" they both answered, moving out of the office and closing the door. Their eyes met for a minute, Allie's glare letting Rhys know instantly that she was pissed off at him.

"Allie wait" he tried to apologize, calling out after her as she took off, grabbing her bag and making a b-line for the elevator. "Wait" he repeated, grabbing his things quickly and following her, just making it into the elevator before the doors shut. "Talk to me please".

"Rhys, when I'm having an argument with the Sarge I don't need you getting involved" Allie yelled, turning her head to look at him.

"Allie I was just agreeing with you, what's the big deal?"

"I can stand up for myself, don't you get it?"

"Yeah I get it-"

"No you don't" she stopped him, "because if you did you wouldn't have gotten involved in a disagreement that had nothing to do with you".

"Allie..."

"Just, don't". Allie managed to stop herself as the elevator doors opened and they were on the ground floor of the building "I'll see you tomorrow". And with that she walked out of the elevator and out of Rhys' sight before he could say anything.

-*-~AE~-*-

Sometimes it amazed Allie how easy it was to fall into habits, and how once these habits are formed, it can be near impossible to function how you used to. Even if those past habits had been something you'd been doing your whole life, it was so hard to go back. Every night Rhys would be there next to her, his arms wrapped around her, and that was how she'd fall asleep. And now as she lay away in her bed, the right side empty, she realised the reason she couldn't sleep. With the exception of the previous night, she had fallen asleep in his arms every night for the last three weeks, and the only reason she had slept the night before was because she had been too drunk to stay awake.

Glancing over at the alarm clock which read two thirty six, she sighed finally giving up on getting to sleep. She pulled the covers off of her, turning her body sideways and placing her feet on the ground. "Damn it Rhys" she cursed out loud, she felt numb, and before she could even stop herself she was grabbing the keys to her car, and driving herself to Rhys'.

The drive seemed longer than usual, what was only a twenty minute drive seemed like an hour in her mind. She didn't know what she was going to do when she got there, or what she was even doing there in the first place. Her body was on auto pilot, every move was done without even thinking. Finally she indicated right to turn down Rhys' street, the closer she got the house the more she began to relax.

Rhys could hear her car pull up in the driveway; he too hadn't been able to get much sleep, not after the fight they had had that day. Getting out of bed, he peered through the curtains and out the window to check that it was in fact her, sighing in relief when he saw her stepping out of the car. He moved quickly to get out of his room, getting to the door and opening it just as she was approaching it. A smile formed on his face as he watched her in front of him, still in her favourite pair of pyjamas.

Allie looked up to see Rhys standing in front of her and leaning against the door frame with his stupid smirk displayed on his face, still not having the right words to say, she stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him and burying her head in his bare chest.

Without even hesitating, like it was a natural reaction, Rhys wrapped his arms around her in response, his muscles relaxing now that she was here. They stayed like this for a while, their bodies fitting together so closely and perfectly.

"I'm still angry" she pouted, untangling herself enough so that she could look directly at him, "because of you I can't sleep by myself".

Rhys smirked at this, slightly amused by the childish look she had on her face, it was the same expression his five year old niece would display when she was sulking over something petty. "I guess I better let you in then and drag you to bed with me" he smiled, placing a kiss on her forehead before he led her inside, closing the door behind her. Allie didn't argue with this, taking comfort in following him with one hand in his. When they got to his room, both tired from the lack of sleep, they climbed into bed on their usual sides and moved in together; like it was a natural state that didn't need to be thought about, Allie resting her head on his shoulder, one hand placed on his chest and Rhys holding her in close. Both lay in peace, and before long they were both sound asleep.


	17. Ch 16, A Cup of Tea

Hi guys, so I've been watching some old episodes of my muched loved 'City Homicide' and it's given me some inspiration to keep writing some of my unfinished fic's. Anyway, happy reading, and please let me know what you think.

_**Chapter 16  
A cup of tea**_

_two days later _

Walking down a long corridor towards Commander Bernice Waverly's office Allie's mind was racing. It was no secret that there was no love lost between her and the commander, especially since she found out Allie was seeing her nephew, so when she was told the commander had asked for her to come straight to her office she hadn't waisted any time getting there to find out what she wanted.

Pausing as she got to the door, she found it was already open and Bernice wasn't at her desk as she usually was. Instead she found her sitting on one of the couches casually reading the daily newspaper. "You wanted to see me maim?" She interrupted.

"Allie" the commander smiled, looking up from what she was reading, before folding the newspaper up and placing it back onto the coffee table, "Yes, please come in". Cautiously Allie nodded, stepping inside the office and closing the door behind her. "Take a seat".

"What's this about?"

"No need to look so concerned, I didn't call you hear cause your in any trouble".

Hearing this, Allie, sat down and relaxed her shoulders a little. "Ok"

"Look, I realise that you and I have our differences" Bernice started, "But, despite my best wishes, it seems that this thing between you and my nephew isn't something that I can just ignore. So maybe it's about time we put aside these differences and make an effort… For Rhys' sake". With this Allie breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know why the commander had taken such a disliking to her right from her first day in Homicide, maybe she'd never know, but when Jarvis had told her she needed to find a way to get along with Wavely, she had had no idea how it would be possible. Now, it was looking like it was. "What do you say?"

"Sounds good to me" Allie nodded.

"Ok" Bernice smiled. "How about we got get a cup of tea? Maybe it might help if we get to know each other a little better".

"Yeah ok"

"Good, I'll let Sergeant Ryan know you'll be busy then" she stated, getting up and walking towards her desk.

Nodding, Allie followed her lead and stood up, "Thankyou Maim"

To this Bernice did not say anything, just nodded in response. "Grab your coat, I'll meet you out the front".

-*-~AE~-*-

"Ok, thanks. Well let us know if you hear anything." Jen sighed before hanging up the phone.

"Still nothing?" Nick asked, taking a seat back at his desk and placing a cup of tea on the edge of Jen's.

"Thanks. No nothing's falling into place".

"Yeah nothing from pathology either" Rhys interrupted as he walked past them and placed a whole heap of paperwork on his desk. "Anyway have either of you seen Allie?"

"No" Jen answered looking puzzled. "She's been gone a while".

Before they could question this any further Matt entered the room. "Jen"

"Sarge" she responded looking around to where he was standing.

"I've just been on the phone to the feds and they've agreed have Harrison Davies come in and speak to us" he informed her.

"Finally" Jen said "So when will he be in?"

"this afternoon, however there are a few conditions"

"That'd be right" Rhys rolled his eyes

"What kind of conditions?" Nick asked

"The undercover officer is going to share his case with us, however we're not allowed to formally interview him. The feds are worried that if this case gets to court before their operation is over then it could blow the whole thing" Matt explained, moving closer towards Jen's desk. "This is the officers file, I suggest you and Allie read up about his history before he gets in".

"Well that would help if we knew where Allie was, she's the other lead on this case and I can't even seem to find her" Jen sighed, taking the file from Matt.

"She'll be back soon" was all Matt said before leaving to Stanley's office.

-*-~AE~-*-

Sitting across the table from Bernice Waverley, Allie watched as the waitress poured the tea into her teacup, she wasn't a tea person, infact, in all honestly Allie hated tea, but if it meant patching things up with the commander then she'd drink it. "So can I ask you something?" Allie spoke up. So far she'd told her about her family, hobbies, and answered numerous other questions since they had arrived, but there was something that was niggling at her.

"Offcourse"

"When we first met you didn't exactly take a shine to me"

Bernice chuckled, "no not exactly".

"Why was that?" she asked.

The commander paused for a moment, placing her teacup back down on the table. "Before I entered that room… I overheard you speaking to one of the other on the team, trying to suss me out" she explained. "I guess it was the way you said it. Something about me going nutso after my son died".

"Oh" Allie, nodded, "look, I didn't mean any harm in it".

"Yeah and I'm sure you didn't, but at the time it pissed me off, and well, I guess I took a little satisfaction in making you do uniform jobs".

"Fair enough" Allie responded, taking a sip of the peppermint tea in her cup. "Look for what it's worth, I am awfully sorry for what happened to Josh. I can't imagine the impact it must have had on you".

Bernice nodded, "and on Rhys"

"Where they close?" she asked, "It's just he never talks about him, or what happened".

"Yeah, it's not something he likes to talk about. Rhys was overseas when it all happened, so I don't think he got the same kind of closure as the rest of us did, he only came over for the funeral and had to go straight back to his studies, but… I could tell as soon as I saw him that it had hit him pretty hard" she explained. "They were both only children so they were kind of like brothers when they were younger, Rhys taught Josh how to ride a bike, they did a lot together, Rhys even used to stick up for him when people gave him trouble at school, so I guess when this all happened he felt guilty that he wasn't here to protect him".

Allie didn't know what to say to this, she just nodded, even when they were just friends and used to tell each other everything he never talked about anything to do with Josh.

-*-~AE~-*-

When Allie arrived back at Homicide she found the rest of her squad all at their desks looking up at her. "Ok… what's going on?" she asked uneasy about the amount of attention she was receiving.

"Where have you been?" Jen asked.

"Long story, anyway where are we at?" she deflected. Getting a moment of hesitation from Jen before she went on to fill her in.

"Harrison Davies, or should I say Detective Anderson has agreed to talk to us off the record about his case" she explained, "Matt gave us his file to look over, I've left it on your desk to read".

"Ok, when's he coming in?" she asked, walking over to her desk and opening up Anderson's file.

"This afternoon"

"Ok" she nodded

"Anyway" Jen changed the subject, "while your reading that, I'm going to go and get some lunch".

"Yeah me too" Duncan agreed. "Coming Nick?"

"Yeap" he answered, following the other two to the kitchen.

Rhys waited till the others left the room till he spoke "So are you going to tell me where you were?"

"I was at a café with your Aunty," she explained.

Hearing this and seeing that Allie wasn't hostile about the situation Rhys smiled, raising his eyebrows "yeah?"

"Yeah" she nodded, "we had a good chat".

"About what?"

"Just stuff" Allie smiled

"Is that all I get?"

"We've called a truce" was all she offered as an explanation, he didn't need to know all the details they'd talked about. With that Rhys left her to read the files she had open in front of her. Maybe his Aunty had really listened to what he'd said after all.

-*-~AE~-*-

_Later that day_

The Homicide squad sat waiting in the bull pit as Detective Anderson entered the room along side Sergeant Ryan. "Detectives, this is Detective Anderson" Matt explained, "Detective Anderson, this is Detective Kingston, and Detective Mapplethorpe our leads on this case".

"Pleasure to meet you both officially" Anderson responded shaking both Jen and Allie's hands. "Now I believe I've got some sharing to do".

"Yes" Jen Answered, opening up her notebook. "So what can you tell us about Maria?"

"Maria was feeding me information about the case I'm working on, I believe she may have been killed by the people I'm investigating".

"And who exactly is that?" Allie jumped in. She didn't like where this was going, when undercover operations went wrong like this usually things were covered up, she could just imagine the next thing that could come out of his mouth, go away and leave this case alone.

"Look, Maria works as a receptionist, a lot of temp work so she moves around a bit".

"Yeah we know that already" Allie interjected.

"The last temp job she had was for a warehouse manufacturing kitchen ware, massive company, lots of corrupt officers covering up drug trafficking".

"And that's what your investigating" Rhys added.

"Yes" Anderson confirmed, "Look, I'm so close to cracking this case, if I tell you everything I've got I need you to work with me, not ahead of me".

The detectives around the room all looked at each other wondering who was going to speak, without that information their case wasn't going anywhere, so they didn't really have much choice.

"Ok" Matt finally spoke up, "we can work with you, so what have you got".

-*-~AE~-*-

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More to come soon


	18. Ch 17, She's The One

Hi Guys, thanks for the reviews, here's the next chapter, sorry it's a shirt one but I will have more for you later today. Enjoy.

_**Chapter 17  
She's The One**_

Allie and Jen sat looking over their notes, if what they had been told was true, Maria Hope had been murdered for giving detectives evidence of shipments of drugs, disguised as kitchenware without a real destination address, as well as recordings from conversations she had overheard. Detective Anderson was undercover as a floor worker, but he didn't have the kind of access to information that Maria did.

"So how do we bring these guys down now that Maria's dead? We can't prove they killed her until we can find out who's the head of the drug operation" Jen questioned.

"Yeah and we can't do that without Maria" Allie added as Matt re-entered the room.

"Anderson's going to see what he can find out from some of the other floor workers, maybe one of them know something about what happened to Maria" he explained, "but until then we can't really do anything. Go home, get some rest".

-*-~AE~-*-

Rhys entered his Auntie's office, ready to head home for the day "So making a cup of tea wasn't so hard after all then was it?"

"What on earth are you talking about Rhys?"

"Well Allie had to give me some explanation as to where she disappeared for an hour and a half" he smirked.

"Ah, I see" she nodded, grabbing her handbag off the floor "I figured it was about time things were said".

"And?"

"Well, I can't say she's my favourite person in the world, but she's not all bad" If she had to be completely honest their morning outing had actually been quite pleasant.

"Thankyou" and he really meant it.

"Your welcome darling" she smiled, this was probably the happiest she'd seen him in the last week. "You really love her don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah I do" he nodded. He knew it hadn't been long that they'd actually been together, but there was something different about this girl. He didn't want to speak too soon, but she was the one, he was sure of it.

And with that they locked up Bernice's office and left.

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	19. Ch 18, Old Friends

_**Chapter 18  
Old Friends**_

_A few weeks later_

She hated these ladies nights, but somehow despite this in her bid to keep the peace between her and the commander, she'd been talked into helping Bernice set up for the annual Women in Blue fundraiser, and now after a few hours of pointing florists in the right direction, organising flyers, setting up chairs, and folding napkins, she was starting to think that maybe the days when the commander couldn't stand her weren't so bad after all. This was not how she had planned on spending her Sunday morning.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket when she heard it ringing, she smiled when she saw Rhys' name across the screen. "Hey you" she grinned after hitting the answer button and putting the phone up to her ear.

"Hey, are you just about done yet?" he asked.

"I have no idea" she sighed, fiddling with a napkin in her fingers that had been sitting on the table she was standing next to. "Every time I think were done someone walks in with another vase of flowers or more tables to set up, there is seriously that many chairs in here that they could probably fit all the men in the force in here too".

Rhys chuckled slightly at Allie's remarks, finding some level of amusement in her dislike for the whole event. "Oh well I'm sure they'll be done soon. Anyway, the reason I was calling was because I just got a phone call from Duncan".

"Mmm"

"Apparently some guy you guys used to work with is back in town and wants everyone to meet up for dinner tonight" he explained, "Simon someone I think".

"Really, Simon's back in town?"

"Yeah apparently" he answered, "who is he?"

"He left a few months before you joined the squad. He was the one who got set up in the whole Pullman's towy murder a while back".

"oh, right" he exclaimed, suddenly putting the pieces together. "Should I tell Duncan that we'll be there then?"

"Yeah, should be good to see him again, let me know when and where".

"Yeah will do. Anyway I better not distract you for any longer".

"Yeah alright then. I'll talk to you later".

"Yeah, Love you".

"Love you too".

-*-~AE~-*-

Later that evening after setting up Allie pulled up her car outside the restaurant she was meeting up with everyone. It seemed weird that they were going to be seeing Simon again, it wasn't all that long ago that he'd been working with them, but so much had happened in that short time. Opening the car door she grabbed her bag and double-checked her hair in the reer view mirror before stepping out onto the sidewalk. Rhys was already out the front of the place waiting for her reading something on his phone. "Hey you" she called out, grabbing his attention.

"Hey, you made it" he smiled, putting his phone away in his pocket. He wasn't wearing his usual suit and tie like he did every other day of the week; instead he wore a pair of dark denim jeans, and a casual shirt. Allie liked seeing him like this, it reminded her that they had a life outside of work. Finally reaching him she placed a kiss on his cheek and grabbed his hand, turning towards the entrance of the restaurant.

Inside Duncan, Jen and Nick were already at a table waiting. "So where are these other slackers?" Simon changed the topic, pouring himself another glass of water.

"Matt's stuck in traffic" Nick told him, "Allie and Rhys shouldn't be too far away".

"And speak of the devils" Jen gestured towards the door where Rhys and Allie had just entered.

"Hey you" Simon called out, getting up to give Allie a hug. "So I hear you shacked up with the commander's nephew?"

"Yeah, looks like it didn't take Duncan long to fill you in then" Allie smirked looking in Duncan's direction.

"Ay, how come I always get the blame?" Duncan defended himself, taking a sip from his beer.

"Because it's usually you" Jen shot him back down getting laughs from both Nick and Simon.

"Anyway" Allie giggled, "Simon this is Rhys" she introduced the two.

"Nice to meet you" Rhys said sticking his hand.

"Yeah nice to meet you too mate", she responded, shaking Rhys' hand. "I believe I need to buy you a beer, anyone who can keep this girl on a leash must be in need of one".

"Oi" Allie protested, backhanding Simon before heading towards the table to sit down, Rhys close behind her. "So what have you been doing with yourself since you left Homicide?"

"Oh you know, travelling, doing a little soul searching", he sighed, returning to his seat. "Just got back from Bali".

"Well that explains the tan" Duncan jumped in, "he's been living it up while we've been slaving it out in the office".

"Half your luck" Allie snorted.

"So Rhys" Simon changed the topic, he didn't like where the conversation was headed, these guys would have him back solving cases if they had their way, to be honest he wasn't actually planning on going back to the force at all. "These gossips have told me a bit about you already, but I want to hear it all from you" he explained, reaching out for Rhys' glass and pouring him a drink.

"Ok, then" Rhys answered a little uneasy, "what do you want to know".

-*-~AE~-*-

As the night grew dark two individuals were left sitting at their restaurant table, both not wanting the other to leave. "It was good to see Simon again" Jen smiled, "I was really worried about him when he finished at Homicide. He wasn't in a good place".

"Yeah, he certainly seems like the old Simon again though" Nick added, drinking the last of his beer and placing the mug back on the table. Looking back up at her he smiled, right now sitting with her alone in a room full of strangers, he was happier than he'd been in a while.

The two of them said nothing for a while, no words were needed. Nick had always know that Jen was the one for him, but in that moment he realised that if they had a chance of making things work he needed to make a plan, he couldn't just keep being the nice guy she worked with, he needed to show her that he was in it for the long hall, words weren't going to be enough, that was his downfall last time.

Feeling his eyes on her made her begin to loose control, and before she knew it their faces grew closer until they were so close she could feel his breath on hers. She wished they could give into what was in front of them, but these things always had consequences. Yes Allie and Rhys had managed to make I work for them, but realistically they only had a temporary fix, there was no guarantee that they'd both stay in homicide for long, for all they knew new people might be hired tomorrow and one of them would be transferred elsewhere.

Feeling like she might be about to give in, Jen stopped herself, opening her mouth to speak, "I should get going".

Disappointed, but yet understanding why she was doing this, Nick nodded, pulling his face away from hers. "I'll walk you out".

And with that the two collected their coats, leaving the restaurant without another word.


	20. Ch 19 Loosing Control

_Hi guys, here's the next chapter, enjoy xoxo  
_

_**Chapter 19**_

_**Loosing Control**_

_Monday Morning_

After yet another pointless meeting the crew packed up their things and began to leave the taskforce room. Today was yet another waste of time as far as Allie was concerned, basically because of the involvement of an undercover officer, they had nothing they could act on yet, and once again they were going back to their desks to go over the same information yet again. "This is such as waste of time" she sighed once any of her senior officer had left the room.

"I agree, we should be out there interviewing people from her workplace" Duncann responded, sharing her frustration.

"They could be putting us on another case which actually needs us but yet we're here waiting on an undercover cop to fix his operation and give us some info, that could take months" she continued, picking up her things. By now they were the only ones left in the room.

"Exactly" Duncann agreed, picking up his coffee and heading towards their desks. "Coming?"

"Nah. " Allie was in no mind frame to be sitting back at her desk and going over info she had already read.

"Suit yourself" he answered leaving her there by herself.

Taking in a deep breath Allie headed through the corridor towards the kitchen. She was angry, not just about this case, but it was the thing to push her over the edge. Entering the room, she was so focused she failed to notice Matt making himself a cup of coffee in the corner.

Heading towards her locker she dumped her things in it, slamming the door shut and loosing it when it flew back open. It was a split second snap in her brain and before she knew it she had formed a fist and punched the door in.

"Allie" Matt called out, trying to stop her from across the room.

Hearing the Sergeants voice managed to snap her out of her moment of weakness, Flinging herself around she turned to see Matt standing by the kettle, looking rather startled. "Sorry sarge, I didn't see you there" she apologised.

"Clearly" Matt responded taking a few steps forward towards her side of the room. "What's going on?" he asked, putting his cup down on the table and pulled out a chair for her, "sit" he told her, before taking a seat next to her.

Not feeling in any position to protest, Allie did as he said and took a seat at the table in the middle of the room. She didn't have any words to explain herself, and after a few moments of silence Matt too sensed this. "Look Allie, I don't know what's going on with you, but I know there's more getting to you than just this case… Am I wrong?"

Hesitating for a moment, she could see that he wasn't going to let down on this one, "no sarge" she answered. "But look, I'll be fine. I was just… having a moment".

Matt didn't buy it, looking over at her locker for a minute, trying to think of what to do next. He'd had situations like this before since he'd become Sergeant, but that was when there had been differences of opinions, not when one of his detectives was having a melt down. "Come on Allie, you and I both know this is becoming more regular, I see a lot more from my office than you realise".

"Right" she knew exactly what he was referring to, in the last couple of weeks she'd gone off at Rhys at least twice at their desks and stormed off. She hadn't really thought about the fact that Matt's office was in full view of it.

"I get you don't want to talk to your Sergeant about whatever it is that's going on, but you do need to talk to someone".

"I don't need a shrink," Allie protested, her stubbornness kicking in again.

"It's not negotiable Allie" Matt told her, "your going to take the afternoon off and I'm going to call Claudia and see if she can fit you in" he explained, getting up and stepping out of the room before pulling out his phone. When he came back a few minutes later he stopped before he came in, preventing Rhys from coming in. "You'll just need to wait a few minutes Rhys".

"I just need to speak to Allie" she could hear Rhys say.

"Just go back to your desk Rhys" Matt told him, before pushing his way into the room, leaving Rhys outside wondering what was going on.

"Claudia's free now" Matt told her, walking back towards her.

Allie just nodded, not really having anything to say.

"Are you ready?"

"I think so" she sighed, getting up from her chair, "Is Rhys still there?"

Tilting his head back to get a better look Matt saw that the coast was clear, "Nah, he's gone. I think he'll have a couple of questions for you though".

"Yeah I know" she forced a smile, "I know" she repeated heading for the door.

"You know she will let me know if you don't show" Matt warned her turning around to look at her as she got to the door.

"Yes Sarge" she nodded before leaving to get her bag from under her desk. When she got there she could feel Rhys' eyes on her, waiting for her to look at him.

"What was that about?" he asked when she finally did.

"Walk me to the lift?" she asked in return, not wanting to cause a scene in front of the others. Nodding, Rhys followed her to the lift, "Sarge has given me the rest of the day off" she started.

Noticing that she pushed the arrow to go up rather than down to leave the building Rhys was suddenly confused. "Why?"

"I have some things to sort out" she explained, "And I need you to let me do that" nothing else needed to be said, they both knew that the rest of that sentence was _'by myself'._

"Will I see you later?" he asked as the elevator doors opened.

"I don't know" was all she left him with.

He watched her slowly disappear as the doors closed between them before heading back to the kitchen where the sarge had told him to say out of earlier. Entering the first thing he noticed was Allie's locker with a rather big dent in it.

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